FastFerment Conical Fermenter - Home-Brew Kit - BPA Free Food grade Primary Carboy Fermenter Beer, Wine Fermentation also Hard Cider brewing kit. Stand, bottling hose and all hardware incl,White

This product is not for the faint hearted or for the Soy Boy. The blown mold flashing on the plastic threads need to be filed and smoothed. I used a small triangle file and it took me 20 minutes to make it right. I applied a generous amount of teflon tape, filled the vessel with water and blew in some pressure to exploit any leaks, there were none!!!! For those people whining about this vessel leaking, take it apart and clean the threads with a file. If there is still some leakage use some RTV. Next is the metal base. the threads in the four rods need to be chased with a M6 metric tap as the threads are too shallow for the screws. This took 30 minutes, as I also had to chase the threads on a couple screws that binded because the tapped holes were too shallow on the first attempt. Go deep on those tapped holes and you can't go wrong. In summary this is a cracking deal!!!!. However you need the tools mentioned above and know how to use them. You can't find a 14 gallon conical fermenter for twice this price. I might buy yet another, this will make it 3 for me total.

I can get past the time with a file cleaning up threads, and the miles of Teflon tape you need to keep it from leaking. The 3 gallons of amarone in the tray (thank god I had the foresight to put it in a 20x24 darkroom tray) is a result of the cheap and stupid valve design and connection. The valve screws to the main body. The bulb has a collet plate that pushes against the bottom of the valve with a (too small) rubber o ring to seal, then a threaded collar pulls the bulb up to the valve to make a seal. At least two immediate problems come to light. One, when you try to unscrew the bulb the valve wants to unscrew from the body instead, so you have to hold the valve handle to keep it from moving. Remember the threads and teflon tape? Second, and most importantly, the valve is user disassembleable. The pressure on the o ring and the bulb collet to the valve unscrews the lower race in the valve when you unscrew the bulb. And even though the valve is closed, all the wine comes out. From a design perspective, this seems like an issue that could be avoided with a slightly different valve/pvc configuration. But no, it’s cheap and flawed, and there goes my wine. The stand is flimsy. It holds the fermenter up and keeps it from falling over, but when you’re down there trying to unscrew the bulb, the whole thing is bouncing around- which led to the release of a lot of gas and a wine geyser. Amarone everywhere. Finally, if it were better designed it would still be useless for making wine from grapes. It’s realistically only good for juice or wine kits, and you still need to make a separate batch to top up after primary. You need to leave room for foaming. The inventor says he uses soda or water bottles to fill up the empty space but that still seems a little half ***ed. For about the same money you can get the 16 gallon vevor stainless steel conical fermenter. Don’t bother with this.

If I can ever get this thing to stop leaking, I might be able to try it. I used almost a whole role of Teflon tape and it still leaks. I have read other reviews that say these are wonderful while others also comment on leaks. Doesn't anyone test these things before they leave the factory? The problem seems to be that the threads all have an excessive amount for flash left from the molding process. I have done my best to remove this, and the leaks have slowed, but they are still there. The support stand is very wobbly as well. I am not sure I trust it to holdup under regular usage. Until the engineering and quality control are improved, just save your money until you can afford a stainless steel conical. If you do insist on getting one of these, buy yourself a whole case of Teflon tape and hope for the best. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones that gets a good one. The only use I can come up with for this one, so far, is a very expensive flowerpot.

It has a lot to like and it is very handy. The only down side is the top lid leaks. The ball valve on the bottom leaks. I have tried to tighten the ball valve but no matter what I do it leaks.

If you buy this you need to have the proper expectations. It will require a little effort to get things right, but if you have a little mechanical aptitude and patience, it is well worth it. If you have zero mechanical skills, or want something turn-key, this is not the fermenter for you. There are some very good reviews written here with excellent tips. Read them, it will make things easier. I have the 14 gallon, two of the 7.9 gallon, and the 3 gallon, all working flawlessly.

This thing is great! It's exactly as convenient as it claims to be. That said, I have two complaints: First the box came with one extra of every assembly piece, which is great; but when it came to the little plastic caps that cover the ends of the feet I only got [1/2 + 1] as many as I needed. That said, this part is only necessary if you intend to store the unit on a floor you would rather not damage (I guess it also wobbles, but it's not the end of the world. Second, and the real reason I couldn't give 5 stars, is that there is only 1 hole in the lid, this being the hole that the airlock fits through. That doesn't seem like too much of a problem at first, but when you go to remove the lid, there is no way to balance the pressure and the contents of your airlock get sucked down into the main chamber. If you try to simply remove the airlock, the problem and its effect are the same. The fix is quite simple though; grab a small cork or solid plug from your local brew store or wherever such things are sold, and drill out a hole in the lid to fit it. Now all you need to do when opening your fermenter is remember to uncork it first; simple as that. Additionally, for those who are having problems with leaks: in my experience, the problem is almost always not having used enough teflon tape. If there is such a thing as having used too much, I have yet to encounter it; but if the unit is leaking at a joint it is almost guaranteed to be that you thought you used too much, and really you only used like half as much as it needs.

So I bought the 14 gallon version after having had the 7 gallon for a while. The 14-gallon version is essentially just an upside clone of the smaller one. I'm like the 7 gallon the temperature port is a Shepherd part that screws in, so you could use it as a sampling Port if you wanted to adapt it. It comes with a stand which is very nice. 7 gallon allows you to mount a bracket on the wall and hang the unit from that oh, but I found that to be impractical. So I also bought a stand for the 7 gallon one I have. The very wide lid makes it easy to get inside and clean up after a brew. This unit came with a fair amount of mold flash still attached, but the ball valve adapter screwed on over this without any issues at all and reformed the threads. You may want to screw the valve unit on first then take it off applying to Teflon tape and then screw it back together again.

Good product for the money. I’ve been brewing beer for over 10 years and this fermenter makes a much cleaner beer than buckets. No problems with leaking but you must follow the directions carefully(use the teflon tape provided). The only dislikes are the short discharge tube provided and having to be somewhat careful when cleaning so you don’t scratch the inner walls. Highly recommend..